Playing for keeps

Rew Hanks taps into a long history of printmaking as political commentary in his intricate and darkly humorous linoprints. A patchwork of cultural references, his work juxtaposes history and pop culture to shed light on Australia’s hidden narratives. At the centre of Hanks’ series for the Basil Sellers Art Prize is the figure of Captain James Cook, who the artist depicts as a symbol of British conquest. In Playing for Keeps (2016), the Captain takes to the cricket field with Adam Goodes, Germaine Greer, Mary Wollstonecraft and Nova Peris in a comment on racism and sexism in sport. This high stakes cricket match is a fight for native title, with Cook batting against an historical team of Aboriginal fielders who in 1868 were the first Australians to embark on a cricketing tour of England. The subtle variations in tone and complex patterning in Hanks’ work reveal him to be a virtuoso printmaker, whose dexterity with his medium is rivalled only by the incisiveness of his observations about the ways that the unresolved legacies of Australia’s past continue to blight its present.